Soapstock

Coast, refined (salad), crude, foots (for soapstock), clarified. 

Hydrolyzed vegetable oil (HVO) or acid oil is a by-product of alkali refining of crude corn oil, and is obtained by acidulating alkaline soapstock. HVO must contain at least 92% total fatty acids. It is used to control dust and as an energy source in beef and poultry rations. 

BDF is produced currently by a chemical process with an alkaline catalyst, which has some drawbacks, such as the energy-intensive nature of the process, the interference of the reaction by free fatty acids (FFAs) and water, the need for removal of alkaline catalyst from the product, the difficulty in recovering glycerol, and the treatment of alkaline wastewater. To overcome these problems, the processes using ion-exchange resins (Shibasaki-Kitakawa et al., 2007), supercritical MeOH (Kusdiana and Saka, 2004), MeOH vapor (Ishikawa et al, 2005), and immobilized lipases (Mittelbach, 1990 Nelson et al, 1996 Selmi and Thomas, 1998) have been proposed. In this paper, enzyme processes for production of BDF from waste edible oil, waste FFAs, and acid oil recovered from soapstock are described. In addition, applications of the element reactions to the oil and fat industry are introduced. 

Vegetable oils are refined through pressing/extraction, degumming, alkali deacidification, decolorization, and deodorization. Alkali deacidification byproduces soapstock. Acidulation of soapstock prepares acid oil which contains FFAs, acylglycerols, and other lipophilic compounds. It is reproduced currently as FFAs, which are used as raw materials for production of soaps, lubricants, and paints. But the demand for FFAs is almost in saturation. Hence, conversion of acid oil to BDF is expected to avoid an oversupply of the industrial FFAs and subsequent price decrease. 

An enzymatic process cannot be adopted for industrial production of BDF, if immobilized lipase cannot be used for long period. Studies on the stability of immobilized C. antarctica lipase revealed that it was the most stable when the reaction was conducted with 5 to 8 mol MeOH for total FAs in acid oil prepared from soapstock (Watanabe et al., 2007). The phenomenon, that there is the optimum region of MeOH concentration, may be explained as follows ... 

Most manufacturers use soapstock to spray on meal for animal feed, or ship the material to acidulators. Some seed oil producers treat soapstock on site with sulfuric acid at a temperature of 90-95 °C to produce acidulated soapstock (Dijkstra and Segers, 2007). Acidulated soapstock is very dark in color with a strong, rancid, burned odor from the free fatty acids and neutral oils. Free fatty acid content varies and can be in excess of 90%. Moisture content as well as unsaponifiables can be substantial and the pH (based on samples provided to Stepan Company) may vary from 3 to 4.5. An example of a typical analysis of an acid oil sample is listed below (Table 6.2). 

To achieve this, soapstock was reacted under pressure with methanol and sulfuric acid as the catalyst at 130°C-180°C and up to 500psi. Without the intermittent removal of the by-products water and glycerol, the reaction equilibrated at about 10 AN (acid number), or approximately an 82% conversion... 

Haas, M. I, Bloomer, S., and Scott, K. 2000. Simple, high-efficiency synthesis of fatty acid methyl esters from soapstock. J. Am. Oil Chem. Soc., 77(4), 373-379. 

Stern, R., Hillion, G, Gateau, R, and Guibet, J. C. 1985. Preparation of methyl and ethyl esters from crude vegetable oils and soapstock. Paper presented at the World Conference on Emerging Technologies in the Fats and Oil Industry, November 3-8,... 

In the process, miscella leaves the extractor at about 30-35 percent oil and is concentrated to approximately 65 percent oil by evaporation. The FFA in the concentrate then is reacted with alkali (sodium hydroxide solution) to produce soaps that are removed with other water-soluble compounds by centrifugation. Next, the solvent is removed from the miscella-refined oil by further evaporation, and the soapstock is spread on the meal in the DT to recover its solvent. Hexane vapors from the miscella and the DT are condensed, and the solvent is recycled to the extractor for reuse. The noncondensable gases are passed through a mineral oil stripper to recover the last traces of hexane. 

The crude oil from which gums are taken for lecithin production still contains nonhydratable phosphatides, but can be treated with a chelating agent before alkali neutralization and will be removed with the soapstock by centrifugation. Provision must be made for the added acid in calculating the amount of neutralizing alkali added. 

Saponification/Acidification Process. The recovery of fatty acids from soapstocks and soap reboil operations is of commercial value ... 

The recovery of fatty acids from soapstocks by a continuous process has been described soapstocks obtained from degumming and alkali refining operations are subjected to a saponification step followed by controlled acidification for cost efficiency and pollution control.Ila,b... 

Kumar, R.R. Tiku, P.K. Prakash, V. 2009. Preferential extractability of y-oryzanol from dried soapstock using different solvents. J. Sci. Food Agric. 89 195-200. 

Seetharamaiah, G.S. Prabhakar, J.V. 1986. Oryzanol eontentofindianrice bran oil and its extraction from soapstock. J. Food Sci. Tech. 23 270-273. 

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